Have I Seen You Somewhere Before?
by Kathryn6
Summary: A series of chance meeting that Paige had with her family before Charmed Again, includes all four charmed ones as well as Patti, Penny, Sam, Victor, Glen, Andy, Darryl, Cole and Leo (The list goes on.)
1. Authors' Note

Have I Seen You Somewhere Before?  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Date of birth that are used: Prue 25 October 1970; Piper 7 March 1973; Phoebe 2 November 1975; Paige 2 August 1977 Patti's death: 28 February 1978  
  
This with my maths makes  
  
Prue: 2 years 5 months older than Piper, 5 years 1 month older than Phoebe, 6 years 10 months older than Paige  
  
Piper: 2 years 8 months older than Phoebe, 4 years 5 months older than Paige  
  
Phoebe: 1 year 9 months older than Paige  
  
And when Patti died, Prue was 7 years 4 months, Piper 4 years 11 months, Phoebe 2 years 3 months, Paige 6 months  
  
All these birth date were given on Charmed (but due to writer inconsistency they have probably been changed several times!) Anyway, they will be helpful to work out the characters ages as the fic progress. Also this fic will work as a series of short fics in which Paige runs into her family without knowing who they are and therefore not directly flow, for this reason you don't need to read everyone!  
  
Disclaimer: If you've heard of them, I don't owe them. 


	2. 2 August 1977

Part One: 2 August 1977: Baby Girl  
  
Characters: Penny, Patti, Sam, Prue (6), Piper (4), Phoebe (1), Paige (newborn)  
  
Patti looked down at her little girl; the newborn infant was only a matter of minutes old. She offered a tear stained smile as she glanced up at Sam and then back to the tiny Halliwell.  
  
Patti moved her index finger along her baby daughter's face, "She's got your eyes."  
  
Sam smiled as he sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed Patti's back, "No, she's beautiful, she all you."  
  
"She's the perfect mixture of both of us."  
  
Patti smiled at her lover; she had the family that she had always wanted around her. There was Sam, who was truly the most wonderful man she had ever meet. She had her four amazing and beautiful little girls, who were changing and developing everyday. And then there was her mother, interfering and protective, but at the same time a breathtaking woman.  
  
Her smile wandered as she realised this family that she had would never have a change to succeed. Her and Sam's relationship was forbidden, she could imagine a witch-Whitelighter relationship ever been given the chance to realise its potential. It could over something so great, yet the elders kept to their simple-minded principals, especially when it could create something so striking, innocent and potentially powerful.  
  
Patti looked directly into Sam's eyes, "I can't give her up."  
  
"Patti, honey," he started as he held their baby in his own hands, "We have too. God knows what will happen to her, the girls, and us if we don't. We'll be made an example of, the girls may never obtain their destiny, grow to become the charmed ones. And this incredible little girl here, well it will be as good as putting her in a zoo, being monitored all the time and marked on what happens. She deserves a life, one we can't give her."  
  
"I just, I just," Patti said through her tears, "Want to see all my girls together just once, safe, unaffected by all this mess."  
  
Sam looked down at the infant wrapped in a white blanket with a letter P on it and handed her back to her mother. "Well why don't we just bring them in I'll go and get them."  
  
"We can't, they'll remember her, Prue's 6 and Piper's 4, they're going to remember a baby."  
  
"I'll wipe their memories with some dust," Sam smiled, "or get you're mother to do a spell."  
  
Patti held tightly onto her tiny daughter as she watched Sam disappear out of the room. She was so perfect and despite everything that she was being forced to do she would not change a thing.  
  
The door flung open and a little girl came running in and climbed up onto the bed, "Mommy."  
  
Patti smiled, "Piper, honey, do you want to meet your sister?"  
  
The younger Piper nodded as she made her way over to her mother. "She tiny."  
  
"Yeah, she is, just like Phoebe was. Can you remember that?" Patti asked as she watched the toddler nod. "Do you know where Prue is?"  
  
"She with Sam, they getting Phoebe."  
  
"And bringing them to their mommy." Sam's voice came from the door as he stood holding the sleeping one-year old Phoebe.  
  
Prue looked at the bed as her eyes widened, as she made her way over and walked over to stand at the edge of the bed. "Who's the baby, mommy?"  
  
"She's your baby sister, do you want to come and meet her?"  
  
"How?" Prue asked as she made her way over to the bed.  
  
Just as Prue was looking at her baby sister, the door opened again and Penny walked in with a harsh expression on her face. She could not let this family get attached to each other, and needed to break it apart as soon as possible.  
  
"Patti this is not a good idea," she explained looking at both Patti and Sam while taking Phoebe out of Sam's arms. "Prudence, dear, why don't you take Piper and Phoebe into your room."  
  
"But I wanna see the baby, Grams," Prue tried to protest. Penny raised her eyebrows and looked at the six-year old. "Come on Piper."  
  
Penny gave the infant Phoebe to the six-year and turned to wait, Piper followed her older sister out the room. "We really need to get the baby to that church."  
  
"Mother we just want some time."  
  
"But that's what you can't have." Penny told her, "We need to all stay strong and stick to what we agreed too."  
  
"Ms. Halliwell, with all due respect a couple minutes won't hurt."  
  
Penny looked at Sam, "I'm just trying to protect my family, Sam. Now I'll just go and wiped the girls memories." 


	3. 2 March 1978

Part Two: 2 March 1978: Mommy's Gone  
  
Characters: Penny, Sam, Victor, Prue (7), Piper (4), Phoebe (2)  
  
Penny stood in the living room staring out of the window aimlessly. It was the day that she never thought would happen, the day she was burying her daughter. She got a handkerchief out of her handbag that lay on the table nearby. Parents were not supposed to outlive their children.  
  
Penny glanced over her shoulder as she straightened the collar on her black dress to see her three young granddaughters watching cartoons on the television. Prue was holding the television guide, trying to tell her younger sisters to be quiet. With Piper waving a doll over Phoebe's head, who in turn, was trying to get the doll back was falling over and blocking the television, causing Prue to scream about the fact that she could not see the Disney characters on the screen.  
  
Penny offered a small smile, they were so young, so innocent and they would not know anything different. Not know what it was like to grow up with a mother.  
  
"Girls keep it down."  
  
Phoebe looked up at her with a childlike grin on her face, "But, Grams, Piper got doll, my doll, mommy give me doll."  
  
"No, you gave it to me," Piper said as she held the doll above Phoebe head.  
  
"Mommy give me doll," the toddler insisted, "Where mommy?"  
  
"Mommy gone to heaven," Prue told her younger sisters.  
  
"Can I go to heaven?" Piper asked dropping the doll, "I want to see mommy."  
  
Phoebe grabbed the doll, "Me too."  
  
"You can't go to heaven." Prue told her younger sisters, "And I can't see Mickey, Phoebe."  
  
"Girls," Penny sighed. She went over and knelt next to the three young children. "I need you three to be on your best behaviour today, okay?"  
  
Penny pulled the three girls tightly into a hug; she was never going to let them go. She pulled away as she saw bright orbs appeared in the dining room. She kissed each of the girls on her forehead as she walked into the dining room.  
  
Penny stared at Sam for a couple of minutes, just taking in Sam's appearance. She let out an exhausted sigh, as she looked at her daughter's boyfriend. He was stood in front of her in an old suit and was unshaven with the look that he had not slept in 72 hours.  
  
"God, Sam, you could have at least tried."  
  
"I want Paige back," Sam told her crossing his arms.  
  
"How do you know her name?"  
  
"I spied on them."  
  
"What?" Penny explained, "What are you talking about, nothing has changed, you can't spy on them and you definitely can't have her back."  
  
"Everything's changed, I've lost Patti, and I want my daughter back."  
  
Penny sighed and looked to the ceiling. "You still can't give that little girl a life, she's best off where she is."  
  
Sam stared at Penny in disbelief, how could this women be so stubborn? This was her granddaughter as well. She had just lost her daughter, how could she not want her whole family around her?  
  
"Mrs Halliwell, would you just consider it?"  
  
"No, I'm doing what is best for all four girls and you as well." The doorbell interrupted Penny's speech to the Whitelighter. "Prudence, dear, can you get the door it will be your father?"  
  
Seconds later and Victor had strolled into the dining room. He stared at Sam, with a look that could kill written across his face. Sam glared back at Patti's ex-husband with a look of pure disdain on his face.  
  
"What's he doing here?" Victor asked.  
  
"The same thing as you, going to Patti's funeral," Penny explained in a firm tone of voice. "That's it. You're both are going to the funeral and not kill each other. Out of respect for Patti, to help the girls and so I can get through the damn day."  
  
Penny strolled out of the room and into the living room, leaving the two men surrounded with an unnatural silence. 


	4. 17 June 1982

Part Three: 17 June 1982: Can I Have My Ball Back Please  
  
Characters: Penny, Andy (11), Glen (5), Prue (11), Piper (9), Phoebe (6), Paige (4)  
  
A hectic week in the Halliwell manor had almost finished and resulted in a glorious Sunday afternoon. And like what usually happens with good weather, the week's tensions had been forgotten as Penny had taken her three granddaughters and an eleven-year old Andy Trudeau to the park to get some fresh air.  
  
It seemed from the fact the park was full to breaking point that most of San Francisco had had the same idea.  
  
Penny smiled as she put down her book and looked over at her oldest granddaughter, she had fought so much about the idea of 'wasting' a whole afternoon in the park. However her opinions had drastically changed when she had told her she could bring a friend with her. Seconds later she had been on the phone to her oldest friend, Andy, and only minutes after that he had arrived at the house.  
  
Penny sighed at the thought, her granddaughter was growing up, come September she would be starting Junior High. After that she would see her step on an onrushing escalator of events that would see Prue become an adult, in no time at all.  
  
Penny glanced over to the other side Piper and Phoebe were in the midst of a water fight that the six-year old had started. The area under the tree had become a battle zone, in which both Prue and Andy had earlier become innocent victims in the crossfire. Penny laughed to herself at her granddaughters before turning back to her book.  
  
The nine-year old Piper grabbed the back of her younger sister's t-shirt and started shooting water down her back as the younger Halliwell was trying unsuccessfully to escape. Phoebe's face that was staring at her older sisters, showed a sense of innocent naiveté, as she had started to pick challenges against her two older sisters with slim chances of success.  
  
It had only taken a matter of minutes for the straight 'A' student to start to gain the upper hand, by using her intelligence instead of just running around like a madman.  
  
"Piper!" The younger Halliwell squealed unable to get free of her sister's grip and the torrid of water following over her skin. "That's not fair!"  
  
"So I win?"  
  
Phoebe studied her older sister's face for a couple of minutes and then shrugged, "Okay."  
  
Piper let go of her younger sister's shirt and dropped her water pistol grinning broadly. It was so easy to beat her younger sister in these fights, because despite the fact the six-year was quite tall and strong for her age, she always used the same tactics. Piper's smile grew; this victory gave her at least a couple hours bragging rights.  
  
Splash.  
  
Seconds after Piper had let go of Phoebe t-shirt; the young brunette had waited for her older sister to be distracted and aimed a fatal blow back at her stomach. The same process as half an hour earlier took place as Phoebe sprinted away to hide behind a tree with Piper running after her.  
  
Andy pulled Prue to him as Phoebe ran past with her water pistol held above her head nearly knocking Prue over.  
  
"Better safe than sorry," he said as he threw the playing cards onto the grass. "But what do you say, instead of sitting here getting soaked by them, we joined them and show them how it's done?"  
  
"What? And get forced by Grams to sit in our underwear in the car journey back?" Prue replied as she shot her friend a smile. "I don't think so!"  
  
"Okay, you're right, as always."  
  
"You see I already knew that," Prue told him as she started to pick up the cards off the floor. "Wanna play cheat again?"  
  
"All right."  
  
As Prue started to deal the cards out into even piles, a ball rolled up at her feet. A young girl with dark brown almost black hair came running after it. She halted only a matter of yards away from the two eleven-year olds, allowing a fair-haired boy to catch up with her.  
  
Prue looked at the young children and then at the ball that was at her feet. Her eyes stayed looking for a couple of minutes on the girl, she seemed to have a familiar look to her that she could not place, before asking,  
  
"Is this yours?"  
  
"Yes," the girl replied with a strong level of confidence for her age as she opened out her arms to take the ball back.  
  
The boy looked at her with his mouth slightly open, "You're not suppose to talk to strangers, Paige."  
  
"She talked to me first, Glen. So that's not talking to strangers," the four-year old told him, sticking her tongue straight out at the five-year old Glen. "Can we have our ball back, please?"  
  
"Sure," Prue laughed to herself for a second as she handed the ball back. She could not help but see herself and Andy in the pair of them.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Penny looked over her book to watch the interaction between the two pre teens and the two young children. She watched casually as she saw Paige and Glen run away. Penny focused in on the little girl with dark hair and almost dropped her book when she saw Paige turn around and wave at them.  
  
"Are you okay, Grams?" Prue asked, looking between Andy, her grandmother and the two young children.  
  
"Yes, yes, of course," Penny replied as she started to pack up their stuff. "Piper, Phoebe, come on, we're going home."  
  
As Piper and Phoebe appeared at their grandmother's side, Penny sighed taking Phoebe's t-shirt off her back and handing her a towel. Piper glancing over at her older sister as she dropped her water pistol and reached for her spare t-shirt out of Penny's bag.  
  
"What going on?" Piper asked her older sister.  
  
"Don't know," Prue replied.  
  
Penny looked down at Piper as she had waited so patiently. "We can go and see Prue and Phoebe," Penny explained.  
  
Piper looked up in to her grandmother's eyes. "Are they okay?" 


	5. 9 September 1987

Part Four: 9 September 1987: E.R.  
  
Characters: Penny, Mrs Matthews, Prue (16), Piper (14), Phoebe (11), Paige (10)  
  
*This part refers to the car crash that is mention in Murphy's Luck 2.16*  
  
Piper sat on a plastic blue chair in E.R. waiting for her grandmother and sisters. She squirmed on the seat trying to get relativity comfortable on the seat as she looked at her watch for the third time in a matter of five minutes. She had been sitting there for nearly an hour, since the phone call had happened.  
  
Penny had made Prue pick up Phoebe from school, much to the elder Halliwell's great resentment. Phoebe had tried out for the school track team and her grandmother had worried about her walking home alone. Prue had finally agreed to go and pick her up in exchange for using the car tonight for her date with Andy.  
  
Piper looked at the clock again, running through the events in her mind, only four minutes had pasted since she looked down at her watch. She ran her fingers through her long dark hair and her mind flew back an hour to when the hospital had called.  
  
It had taken less than twenty minutes for the taxi containing the two Halliwell's to get there. Since they had arrived Penny had disappeared to talk with the doctors and Piper had been left in the reception area.  
  
Piper had spent the time between looking at her clock or her watch, people watching. Looking at the people going past her from all different forms of life had taken her mind off what could possibly be happening to her sisters.  
  
Piper's eyes drew over to a young girl who had an air to her that reminded the middle Halliwell of Phoebe. The ten-year old child was cradling her left wrist while sobbing on her mother's shoulder. The mother of the dark- haired girl placed one arm around her shoulder and supported the injured wrist with her other hand.  
  
"It really hurts mommy," she sobbed. "I hate my roller-skates, it's all their fault I fell."  
  
Her mother smiled as she pulled her closer to her, "I know honey."  
  
"Why are we having to wait so long?" Paige said as she scanned the room.  
  
"Because there are a lot of sicker children in here than you," Mrs. Matthews tried to explain to her ten-year daughter. "So we've just got to wait a little longer."  
  
"Okay and what happens then?" The innocent voice of the girl asked as she looked at her mother, clutching onto her wrist tighter as she saw a nurse wheel a trolley stacked with medical equipment into a cubical. "They don't hurt it more do they?"  
  
"No, no, they make it better," Mrs Matthews explained kissing her daughter on her forehead. "Well then, the doctor's take a look at it and if it's broken he'll put a cast on it."  
  
"And everyone can sign it, right." Paige face began to brighten up a little. "Like when Elly Banster broke her arm last year."  
  
Her mother smiled, "Yeah, that's right."  
  
"Paige Matthews." A voice from behind the reception desk called.  
  
As Piper watched the girl, the girl disappeared down a corridor with her mother, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Piper looked up to see her grandmother, who's gaze had also followed the girl and her mother.  
  
Penny shot a final look at the young girl. Had the receptionist just said Paige Matthews? Was that the name Sam had told her all those years ago? She shrugged, it was probably just nothing and she had her three other granddaughters to focus on. There was nothing she could do for her fourth granddaughter now but everything she could do for the three other girls.  
  
"Let's go to Phoebe's room."  
  
"Phoebe's got a room!" Piper jumped up and followed her grandmother down a corridor. "That means it's serious!"  
  
"Shh," Penny told her, rubbing her hand on Piper's back as the walked to the hospital room. "They are both going to be okay. Prue's shaken but there's nothing worse than a couple of cuts. And Phoebe, well she's got a concussion and a couple of broken bones so they just want to keep an eye on her. It's worst than it looks. You know your sisters are fighters and drama queens."  
  
Penny opened the door to reveal Prue standing looking out the window and Phoebe lying in a hospital bed with a couple of drips and monitors attached to her body. Piper stood frozen in the doorway as she looked at both her sisters. Penny made her way into the room, splitting her gaze between the three girls.  
  
Prue turned around to look at her grandmother, pulling her hair out of a pony tail. She let her dark hair flow down to hide her face as she looked at Penny. "I'm sorry, I should have looked."  
  
"Yes, you should have."  
  
"You tell her Grams," Phoebe muttered from her bed. "It should be her in this bed."  
  
"You don't think I wouldn't swap places with you right now," Prue retorted as she locked eye contact with her younger sister.  
  
"Whatever," Phoebe replied turning in her bed.  
  
"But it was an accident," Penny explained as she looked over at Phoebe. "Prue you need to deal with the guilt that you're feeling, Phoebe you need to forgive her and Piper would you please for heaven's sakes get out of the doorway and come in the room. People make mistakes girls, even I've made my fair share, one's I would not even dream of sharing and would change if I had to make those decisions again, but it's how you responded to those mistakes that matters." 


	6. 14 December 1990

Part Five: 14 December 1990: Whitelighter's Luck  
  
Characters: Leo, Mr Matthews, Miss Evans, Glen (14), Paige (13)  
  
Glen pulled his feet up onto the branch of a tall oak tree in the Matthews' back garden. He looked down at a thirteen-year old Paige who was standing at the bottom of the tree. Glen grinned as he looked at his jacket that he had left on the grass.  
  
"Hey Matthews, climb up and bring me my jacket."  
  
Paige stared up and looked at the tree that was just outside her bedroom window. Sizing up the height of the tree and the cool window that was circling the garden, she shrugged as she zipped up her own coat.  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
Glen rubbed his shoulders with his hands; it was colder than he thought it would be up here. Offering a small grin to his friend as he sighed then started looking into the neighbour's garden. "Ah come on, dare you."  
  
Paige continued to eye the tree, mentally planning a possible route of it. She ran her fingers over her left wrist, knowing that one slip and she'd probably break the weak arm again. Keeping her eyes on her friend she succeed in finding a possible path up the tree.  
  
"Dare me to what?"  
  
"Climb up the tree stupid, oh and bring the jacket," Glen started as he mobbed his dark blond hair out of his eyes with his hand and looked back into the neighbour's garden. "What the."  
  
"Shh," Paige hissed from the ground. "My dad's only in the kitchen, you know how much he flipped when he hears swearing."  
  
"Okay, okay, but you really need to see this."  
  
Paige looked at him doubtfully, "See what?"  
  
"This guy just appeared in your neighbour's garden. You know the weirdo's one."  
  
"What do you mean 'appeared'?" Paige asked as she glanced back at her house. "People don't just appear."  
  
"Well, I'm telling you he just appeared. One second I was looking at you and talking to you and the next he was... well, there," Glen tried to explain as he looked down at Paige. "Come up and see and remember my jacket."  
  
"Okay, okay I coming." She muttered, "But you better not be lying again."  
  
"I'm not I swear, he just appeared."  
  
Paige picked up the blue jacket off the ground and wrapped it around her waist. She slowly wedged her feet in the roots of the tree as she grasped the bark. Making her way steadily up the oak tree, she occasionally glanced over her shoulder to look at the grass.  
  
"Don't look down, dim-wit!" Glen yelled at her offering the teenager her hand. "Here take my hand."  
  
Paige reached up to grab the fourteen-year old's hand, but Glen quickly removed it and laughed before extending his arm again. Helping to pull her up the tree branch he was on, Glen kept his eyes on the garden next door.  
  
Paige moved herself along the branch and scanned her neighbour's garden. Glen had been right there was a man who looked in his early thirties with dirty blond hair talking to her neighbour, a woman with light brown hair in her early twenties.  
  
"Told ya!" Glen said as she pulled Paige towards him as she wobbled on the branch.  
  
"Shh, I want to listen."  
  
The two teenagers fixed their gaze on the discussion happening between the two adults in the next-door back garden. The man placed his hand over the woman's forehead as Paige glanced over her shoulder at Glen who shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Hey, Miss Evans who's your friend?" Paige called as she shot Glen a grin.  
  
Miss Evans looked up to where the voice was coming from and saw the two young teenagers and then looked back at her Whitelighter. Sighing, she muttered under her breath, "That damn Matthews' kid and her friend."  
  
Leo looked up and made eye contact with the young teenager with dark hair before turning back to look at his charge. "I think I better be going Julia, call me if you need me to help you with that demon-situation again."  
  
Glen nudged Paige as they watched Leo walk into the house.  
  
"Nice to meet you, mister," Glen called.  
  
Paige kept her eyes fixed on the man as Glen wrapped his arm around her. How had that guy just appeared in the garden? Taking a closer look at the house she sighed. He'd probably just come out of the house when she'd been arguing with Glen.  
  
"Paige Matthews, get down from that tree!" She heard her father's voice call. "And I think Glen better go home now."  
  
"But dad!" 


	7. 28 November 1992

Part Six: 28 November 1992: School Project  
  
Characters: Teacher, Prue (21), Phoebe (17), Paige (15)  
  
Phoebe Halliwell was sat staring blankly at the wall as she waited for Principal Wilson to open the door. She couldn't believe she was in trouble again, and it was not like she had done anything that wrong. Phoebe sighed as she got a magazine out of her bag. It was only because that other school was here that she had been sent to the principal's office. Any excuse and they'd line up the likely targets, especially after a fight had broken out earlier in the day.  
  
Flicking through the magazine, she could not believe the injustice of it all. I mean she was not involved in any part of the fight that had erupted, well apart from the odd fit of laughter. All she had actually done was told Tracy Anderson a few home truths, and if any girl needed some home truths it was her. It wasn't her fault either that the blond bimbo had reacted by running to the toilet.  
  
Phoebe grunted as her eyes counted the patched up paint on the wall opposite the bench she was sitting on. This damn school was falling apart; no doubt the teachers would try to blame that on her as well. Or maybe she would have to paint the school on her next detention. Phoebe sighed, it would at least make a change from sitting doing nothing or writing lines on the blackboard.  
  
The seventeen-year old's grumbling was interrupted as she heard two people coming down the corridor. She raised her magazine slightly and looked over the top of it as she tried to listen to the conversation that was taking place.  
  
A women in her early 50's, who Phoebe guessed taught Maths judging from her old outfit that made her look twice her age, was arguing with a teenage girl with dark hair.  
  
"Miss Matthews, we are guests in this school," the teacher lectured. "What did you think you were doing? And don't you know that smoking can kill you."  
  
"Trying to have some fun," the fifteen-year old muttered as she sent a smile to Phoebe.  
  
Phoebe caught the glint in the girl's eyes and sent a small smile back and threw her magazine back into her bag.  
  
"Well, well, you can have all the fun in the world as you wait here for Principal Dawes and your parents." The teacher told her as she turned. "Now, I've got to get back to the hallway."  
  
Paige took a seat next to the young Halliwell and shrugged as she waited for the teacher to disappear down the corridor. Once she had seen her back turn, Paige let out an exasperated laugh before turning to look at Phoebe.  
  
"I wish they'd find a new trick, I mean I'll just play the adoption card and my folks should crumble. And I mean if I want to smoke it's my health I'm destroying, why should they care. And they should give me my cigs back, 'cause I bet she's only going to go and smoke them herself." Paige ranted before turning to look at Phoebe. "So what about your olds?"  
  
"Oh my Grams will probably just tell me I need to sort out my act, not listening to a word I'm saying," Phoebe replied.  
  
Paige looked closer at the girl who was sitting next to her; there seemed to be something familiar about her. "Yeah, I know that feeling. I'm Paige by the way."  
  
"Phoebe."  
  
"So I'm guessing that Dawes is in there with your principal."  
  
Phoebe nodded as she tried to work out where she could have possibly seen this girl before, trying to place her somewhere in her memory. There was something in her face that was memorable that made her feel as if Piper or Prue were looking at her and not a stranger. "Yeah looks like it, trying to repair the joining of communities day, or whatever the hell it is after that fight broke out on the football field."  
  
"How cool was that? I mean I swear it looked like everyone was going to get caught up in it all," Paige said offering a small grin.  
  
"Yeah, it was great when Mr. Bryatt fell on his arse after getting caught up by everything," Phoebe answered her with a grin, before looking at the fifteen-year old girl again. "I know this sounds strange, but have we meet somewhere before?"  
  
Paige was about to reply, she had been wondering the same thing since she had seen the older teen, when she noticed a woman in her early twenties with dark hair marching down the corridor. Her face was bright red and looked like it was going to explode any minute.  
  
Raising her eyebrows, Paige glanced at Phoebe, "Relation of yours."  
  
"Yeah," Phoebe replied, as she looked straight at Prue, "My older sister."  
  
"Rather you than me." Paige told as she looked at the expressed on the elder Halliwell's face.  
  
Prue fixed her eyes straight on the two teenage girls. "I was in class, so what the hell have you done this time and it better be good." 


	8. 4 May 1993

Part Seven: 4 May 1993: Inspector Calls  
  
Characters: Mr Matthews, Mrs Matthews, Darryl, Andy (22), Paige (16)  
  
Andy looked at his computer screen and entered the name Prudence Halliwell into his search drive. It was his first week back in San Francisco since he had entered divorce proceedings with his wife. He sighed as he thought of his hasty Vegas wedding, both him and Susan had made the decision that the marriage would not work after only 19 months. He shook his head, what did the so-called experts say, 'marry in hast and repent in leisure'. But that was not the case either since the two of them had decided to stay friends.  
  
He focused his eyes back on the computer screen as his high school girlfriend's name appeared. Noticing the phone number next to Prue's name, he quickly jotted it down on a piece of paper.  
  
"Hey Trudeau, we have a sixteen-year old drunk." The voice of his partner yelled across the room.  
  
Andy looked down at the phone number again before walking over to Police Officer Morris. He took one final look at the number before entering the room with his partner. Andy screwed the piece of note pad paper up in the ball of his hand, marry in hast repent at leisure.  
  
"We got a name?" Andy asked.  
  
Darryl glanced down at a printed piece of paper before looking back up at the girl who was resting her head on the table. "Matthews, Paige."  
  
"Well we better call her parents, since she's a minor." Andy observed as he looked at the young girl and then back at the crumbled bit of paper in his hand.  
  
"Already done. They should be here any minute," Darryl explained as he took a seat opposite the teenager.  
  
Darryl looked closer at the dark-haired girl and sighed. She could only be a couple of years younger than his brother. He sent the girl almost a look of pity as she raised her head slightly to look at the two officers. She was going to suffer the hangover from hell in the morning and that was worse than any punishment they could give her. A night in the bathroom followed by the next day feeling so fragile that she would feel uncertain with every step she took.  
  
Paige felt her mouth dry up and tried to focus from her mind that was spinning on the police officer sitting in front of her. With the start of a headache from being forced to focus her eyes on something, she croaked, "Can I have some water, please."  
  
Darryl nodded at his partner, "Trudeau, go get the girl something to drink."  
  
"Thank you," Paige replied in a voice that was barely audible.  
  
Seconds later Andy came back into the room with both a plastic cup full of water and the teenager's parents. Seeing her parents entering the room, Paige slumped her head back onto the table. She was not ready for an argument yet.  
  
"Oh Paige," the woman sighed as she entered the room.  
  
Darryl waited for both Andy and the girl's parents to take their seats before glancing down at his new file on Miss P. Matthews. As Darryl looked up he saw a marked difference in the young adult's mother and father. Mr Matthews had his arms crossed with a worried but slightly annoyed look on his face, which made Darryl believe that he had seen this all before. Mrs Matthews however had a look on her face that was full of concern and had reached to rub the girl's back.  
  
"Paige Matthews," Darryl started looking at the young girl who had glanced up at his face again, "We are going to give you an official warning."  
  
Paige pulled the cup of water to her and took a sip, "What does that mean?"  
  
"It means that we are not pressing charges for your drunken behaviour with your friends but will be keeping this warning on record," Darryl explained as much to the girl's parents as Paige herself.  
  
"So I can go home now, then?"  
  
"Yes, you can go home." Darryl told her, "But we'd like to remind you that next time we won't be as lenient with you, so we recommend that there is not a next time."  
  
"What do you say?" Mr Matthews asked his daughter in a stern voice.  
  
Paige looked up at her father and then back at the two police officers, "I'm sorry for taking up your time."  
  
"And," Mr Matthews prompted.  
  
"Thank you for your consideration."  
  
Darryl looked at both the father and daughter before talking. "We just don't want to see you here again. You're free to go home."  
  
"And Miss Matthews, it seems that you have two loving parents there. You're only sixteen and will not find your answers in a bottle of vodka," Andy told the girl as he waited on her to leave the room with her parents. 


	9. 21 September 1994

Part Eight: 21 September 1994: Tour  
  
Characters: Glen (17), Michelle (17) Aubrey (17), Nick (18), Prue (23), Piper (21), Paige (17)  
  
Prue smiled to herself as she opened her diary, for once in her life everything seemed to be perfect. Her job at the museum was starting to get more interesting as the responsibilities that she had been given were growing and her love life was starting to look up.  
  
Prue's smile grew to a grin as she wrote 'date with Roger' on Friday's page. Her young and attractive boss had just asked her out ten minutes ago and she still felt like she was floating on air.  
  
She glanced down at the telephone that was hidden under several files and loose bits of paper. Moving the papers into the correct in-trays her eyes fixed on the phone.  
  
She just had to tell someone. Prue glanced down at her watch, it was only ten o'clock and her younger sister had the morning off. She laughed to herself picturing Piper watching cartoons in her pyjamas while she was working.  
  
Prue picked up the telephone and dialled in her home number. As she waited for someone to answer the phone she ran her eyes down the list of names that the local school had sent of those coming on the tour.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Piper, guess what?" Prue gushed as she heard her younger sister's voice.  
  
"You've been invited to join Mystery Inc."  
  
"Not quite," Prue replied with a small laugh, "It's better than that."  
  
"Nothing is better than Scooby," Piper told her older sister.  
  
"I've got a date with Roger!" she exclaimed.  
  
"Roger?" Piper questioned.  
  
Prue looked in the air, "Roger, the one I've told you about. Roger, my very cute, attractive and yummy boss has asked me out on Friday."  
  
"That's great, you'll have to tell me all about it tonight, or I'll meet you for a coffee after work."  
  
"Yeah okay," Prue replied as she looked down at her watch and she heard muttering enter the office through the open door. "But I better go, that school tour should be getting here any minute."  
  
Prue hung up the phone as she grabbed her notes on the American Civil War and left the small office. As Prue made her way into the reception area of the museum she saw the school crowd enter.  
  
Paige hung back in the doorway of the museum watching her classmates flood into the reception area, as she felt Glen place his hand in her back pocket. She smiled, she always felt so warm and protected when she was with Glen. Glancing into his eyes, she wrapped her arm around her boyfriend's waist.  
  
Glen looked back at her grinning as he moved some dark brown hair out of Paige's eyes. Paige felt butterflies fill her stomach as she let her boyfriend pull her closer to him. 'I love you' she mouthed as she kept her eyes looking into his before being swept into a deep kiss.  
  
"Hey lovebirds," Aubrey called over to her friend, "You'll never guess how young this tour guy is, I mean she's like 12!"  
  
Glen's grin grew slightly as he heard her words, briefly tearing his eyes away from his girlfriend and scanning the room. "Where is she?"  
  
"Over by the info desk, the one that looks a bit like Paige."  
  
Paige's eyes shot over to the information desk in a millisecond. Looking over at the young woman who was now talking to her teacher, she had the strangest feeling that she had seen her somewhere before.  
  
"She looks nothing like me," Paige lied as she dismissed the similarities that had taken her only seconds to see.  
  
"Ah come on Paige," Michelle said as she unwrapped her arms from Nick, "have some fun."  
  
"Yeah, I mean for all you know she could be your long lost sister," Aubrey agreed looking between the two couples.  
  
"Like that happens in real life," Paige told them, "Come on let's get out of here. They'll never notice."  
  
Nick grinned at Glen as he grabbed Michelle's hand and headed for the door, "That's one of the best ideas your girl has ever had."  
  
"Okay, but guys, I'm not playing fifth wheel again," Aubrey told them as she headed for the door.  
  
"Well you need to get yourself a man, then," Michelle called back as she kept her eyes on her own boyfriend before glancing over her shoulder at Paige and Glen. "Come on you two, we don't want to get sprung."  
  
Glen headed for the door but Paige hung back for a couple of seconds watching her friends leave the museum and then took a finally glance at the woman who was talking the tour. There were clear similarities in both herself and this woman. Maybe her friends were right and this could be one of her relations. She shuck it off as she headed for the door, what did it matter, it was there lose they had given her up.  
  
"Paige."  
  
"I'm coming," she called as she tore her eyes away from the women she had been starring at. 


	10. 16 May 1995

Part Nine: 16 May 1995: All Alone  
  
Characters: Mr Cowan, Mrs Belland, Glen (18), Paige (17)  
  
Paige was slumped on a blue plastic chair in a small room, which in her opinion looked like an old school classroom. She looked blankly at the white wall ignoring her boyfriend who was sat next to her with a worried look written across his face.  
  
She just could not believe what had happened!  
  
One minute she had been sitting in the back seat of the car, moaning. Moaning about nothing that was important. Complaining about spending time with her parents. Well she'd never have to complain about spending time with them again.  
  
She screwed up her eyes trying to block Glen's concerning look at her out and forget what had just happened. But every time she closed her eyes she saw her dad's face. A face full of disappointment as he turned to look at her and then a bright flash of lights as the car sank into another car crossing a road and she was flung to the pavement.  
  
She felt her body shake as realisation hit her. It was all my fault, I killed them.  
  
Paige felt a strong comforting hand massage her back as the tears started to stream down her face. She pulled the cuff of her army jacket to her eyes attempting to wipe away some of her tears before looking back at Glen.  
  
"I'm okay," she lied. "I mean it's not like there is even a single scratch on me."  
  
"Yeah, not on your body," Glen told her as he offered a weak smile. "But I can always tell when you're lying, Matthews. You're not okay at all."  
  
Paige looked back with disbelief and anger in her eyes. Who was he to tell her how she was feeling? "So how am I feeling then?"  
  
"Upset, unsure, mixed up, hurt," Glen suggested. "And it's okay to be feeling all those things, it's normal."  
  
Paige sent Glen back a piercing look that seem to penetrate through her oldest friend as she kept her voice in an almost dull exhausted emotion- less tone. "Nothing's normal, none of my life has ever been normal. You see, people just leave me on my own. First my biological parents and now my real ones. So you see I'm just not normal."  
  
Paige got up and walked over to a window. She stared out of it for a couple of minutes, before opening the window and stretching her arm out as she looked down at the ground.  
  
Glen looked at her from his chair. He could hardly believe the Paige he was seeing before him.  
  
He'd expected to see her in a mess, but this was different. She was so emotion-less and he was unsure of what she'd do next. Even when Paige was angry and trying to hide her feelings, she had always shown her emotion, her gut feelings were there. With everything in life she had always shown some form of how she was feeling. Even if she did not show anything in her face, there were her eyes. Her eyes always had a certain twinkle, the twinkle he loved about her. Now she was just offering him an empty shell.  
  
"Paige," he started again.  
  
"Yeah," a dull almost bored tone in her voice answered.  
  
"You know I'll always be there for you, whatever you need."  
  
Paige kept her eyes fixed out of the open window at the passers-by on the street below, "Really? What makes you so different, so different to everyone else that has left me?"  
  
"Because I'm not only your boyfriend, but you're mate. And we were told by Miss Fallon when we were learning to spell that true friends stay with you till the end," Glen told her, watching his girlfriend turn around as her offered her another small grin. "Yeah, I know it's corny, but I promise you if I even look like disappearing you're free to shot me and I fancy sticking around for a while."  
  
Paige narrowed her eyes as she fought off a smile. Glen always knew what to tell her, but it just did not feel right to smile yet. "I'll hold you to that."  
  
Glen stood up and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, kissing on her on the top of her forehead. "You better do."  
  
The teenagers' embrace was broken only seconds later as they heard the door open.  
  
Glen glanced over his shoulder to see his mom enter with a social worker; he had a funny feeling they had been waiting outside the room for a while. He watched as the two of them took seats and then glanced back at Paige, who had moved back towards the window.  
  
"Paige," started the soft voice of Bob Cowan, "we've come to a decision. For the moment we think its best to keep you as settled as possible. So Mrs Belland and your aunt and uncle have agreed that it would be best that you stay with the Belland's until you finish school and reach 18."  
  
The words washed over Paige's head as she looked at the two adults, she couldn't make any decision now and why were they talking about school.  
  
"Is that okay with you, Paige?" The delicate voice of Glen's mother asked. "Because you're all but an adult now, so if you want to change anything it's up to you."  
  
"No, it's okay."  
  
Mr Cowan looked at the teenager, after reading her file and talking to Mrs Belland he had felt an instant pull toward the child. For someone so young she had already suffered so much. "We're here to help and advise you, so anytime you want anything, you just need to pick up that phone. But I've got a funny feeling that you will get through all this just fine." 


	11. 30 April 1996

Part Ten: 30 April 1996: Hi Mom  
  
Characters: Prue (25), Piper (23), Paige (18)  
  
Paige held a small bunch of wild flowers to her side as she entered the small cemetery. She had always preferred wild flowers to the ones that you could find in a shop. They were so fresh and much more thoughtful than the ones that you can buy and had been ordered by someone else.  
  
One thing her parents had told her was, in life if a job is worth doing, it's worth doing probably. She smiled at the thought; she had started to become sort of a perfectionist, like her dad had been.  
  
She glanced at the gravestones as she walked by, after all this time she did not want to miss her mother's name.  
  
It had taken her nearly a year now to trace her mother, Patricia Halliwell. A year to find that all her initial hopes had been dashed as she found out that her biological mother had died when she had been less than a year old.  
  
Paige remembered the sense of irony she had felt at this twist of fate. The twist that even if she had not been given up for adoption at birth that she could have ended up in the care of the social services anyway.  
  
She let out a small sigh as she moved her hair out of her eyes, remembering that very disappointment. With no father's name on any of her forms, she would never get the answers to her questions. Never find out why she was given up and what had been so wrong with her. A feeling of anger that had increased when she had found out that she was the youngest of four girls and the only one to be given up for adoption.  
  
The teenager paused as she reached the right gravestone. She looked at the stone that was the only answer she could get to her 18 year long search for an identity.  
  
As Paige placed her flowers down, she sat at the pavement and stared at the stone.  
  
"You know what?" Paige started, feeling slightly stupid. "I've got here and I don't know why, 'cause what I want is answers and I'm not going to get them talking to a grave stone. But I think I'm going to ask them anyway, because maybe you can still hear me.  
  
First, I want to know why me?  
  
I'm one of four, why was I the only one to be put up for adoption. I mean don't get me wrong, I love my mom and dad, but I've always wondered what was so wrong with me.  
  
I mean what was so wrong with me that you decided you didn't want me after less than one day of my life?"  
  
Paige wiped her eyes as she forced herself to hold any tears back. She had promised herself that she was not going to cry over a woman she had never even met, a stranger that had not wanted to know her.  
  
"Second," she said, clearing her voice, "I want to know who my dad is. I mean what were the two of you hiding not to register his name. 'Cause only people with something to hide don't reveal all the facts."  
  
Paige looked up to the sky briefly before she started to talk again, "I mean is it wrong to want answers to my questions? And they're just the tip of the iceberg.  
  
Who do I look like? Have I got either of your personality? What are the rest of my family like?"  
  
Paige slowly rose to her feet; she knew talking to a piece of stone was not going to help. Nevertheless, she kept her eyes fixed on the gravestone that was the only link she had to her mother.  
  
"I mean, I guess I'm just wondering if you missed having me around. You know, regretted giving me up. 'Cause I'm not that bad a person.  
  
I've still got my whole life ahead of me, so I'm not all sorted out. And I'm far from being perfect, but I'm getting thing right again.  
  
I've just about got through some mess; I always remember to go to A.A. So after everything I've fought I guess I can't be that bad. But the thing was right then I really need a mom, someone to look out for me, but you weren't there. And I guess all I need to tell you is that I sorted it all out alone and that was your loss not mine.  
  
And I've started to babble now, but I think I've said everything I needed to. But if you can find a way, I'd love to know the answers to my questions."  
  
Paige took once last look at the grave as she turned to leave. She started walking at a fairly quick pace down the path, not looking where she was going and brushed past two young women. Glancing up at the two young adults, she saw familiar features in their faces and stopped as she heard one of them talk.  
  
"Did Phoebe say what time she would get here?"  
  
Paige's eyes widened as she saw them stop at the grave she had just visited.  
  
The younger of the two looked down at her watch, "Her class only finished ten minutes ago, and I wish you'd just give her a break. You're far too hard on her."  
  
"Hmm, yeah," Prue muttered looking down at the grave and placing a bunch of flowers on it. She stopped to glance up at Piper as she gestured to the flowers already on the grave. "I wonder who put these here?" 


	12. 19 December 1996

Part Eleven: 19 December 1996: Frat House  
  
Characters: Owen (22), Scott (20), Helen (19), Phoebe (21), Paige (19)  
  
Paige was stood in the middle of a large crowded living room that was scarcely decorated with only the bare necessaries as well as a large keg of beer and a CD player with speakers. The speakers were blasting the music so loud so that even from a distance you could see the visible vibration. While the sofa had been moved to the side to leave a great hole in the middle of the room that was packed with people, almost similar to a sardine can.  
  
Paige shuffled into her own space and started to play with the ends of her hair as she scanned the room for her friend. Like most good parties that she had been to already in her freshman year, this one had quickly distended into people drinking, smoking and flirting. The teenager smiled at the scene that had evolved before her; you just had to love parties like this.  
  
A girl with light brown shoulder-length hair and slightly tanned skin approached her. She smiled at Paige and offered her a plastic cup of Coke while taking a sip out of her own beer.  
  
Paige looked down at her watch in an almost mocking fashion with a grin, "You've been gone ages."  
  
"You've no idea how hard it was to get a non-alcoholic drink in here," Helen told her friend with a small sigh as she started to scan the room herself. "So what's the eye candy like in here?"  
  
Paige took a brief sip of her drink, "Not bad, we definitely picked the right party to come to tonight. It looks like all the jocks are here. What's this frat house again?"  
  
"Can't remember," Helen replied with a slight twinkle in her eye, "Anyone come over yet?"  
  
"The night's still early," Paige explained as she adjusted the straps on her dress.  
  
Helen grinned as she managed to catch the eye of a boy standing on the other side of the room, "And my night's with him."  
  
"Cocky?"  
  
"No, just confidant," Helen explained as she started to head over, before turning her head back to Paige. "I'll see you later and remember if you can't be good, be careful."  
  
Paige laughed, "You too."  
  
Paige smiled as she watched her friend disappear into the crowd. Helen had always been the type of girl who would see what she wanted and go out and get it. This was a quality that had seemed to rub off on Paige more as the year had processed. Someone who had helped dragged her out of all the mess of the last eighteen months.  
  
Paige smiled as she watched a guy walk over towards her. She held back a laugh at the way her was walking, the alcohol had already seemed to take root in his legs and arms.  
  
"Wow, did it hurt?" he asked as he approached.  
  
"I'm not going to fall for that line." Paige told him with a grin, "You're going to have to be a bit less corny. Why don't you try again?"  
  
"Okay." The boy thought for a minute before opening his mouth. "Well, my name's Scott and my friend has just left me for that girl over there and looks like your friend as done the same."  
  
"So what do you suggest we do about it?" Paige asked in an innocent fashion.  
  
"Well, you could dance with me, a kind of pity dance."  
  
"Sure, I can take you on a pity dance," Paige replied with a small laugh as she took his hand and whispered into his ear. "It's Paige by the way."  
  
Paige let herself be led onto the dance floor into the backdrop of a Madonna song. She worked so hard in the week, almost to make it up to her parent, to show them that she was not going to turn out the disappoint they had seen on the day they had died. But come the weekends, she had fun, seeing it as keeping the balance right.  
  
Yet there was something inside her that made her kept everyone at arms length from her heart.  
  
As the song stopped, Scott moved closer towards her. "Do you want to get a beer and then find a room where we can talk, get to know each other."  
  
Paige's looked into Scott's eyes, what could a bit of safe fun hurt as long as she stayed in control of the situation. She'd have some fun and then just get back to her normal life and with a bit of luck and the alcohol inside him, she wouldn't bump into him again.  
  
"Yeah, a talk fine, but no beer thanks." Paige gestured towards Phoebe Halliwell who was standing in the doorway of the room with someone who looked like her boyfriend. "I wouldn't want to end up like her."  
  
Phoebe was enjoying the end of term activities by getting drunk with her boyfriend. She had set out that evening with every intension of getting trashed and forgetting the argument that she had with her older sister earlier. She was stick of hearing over and over again, what a so-called waste of space she was, so for the second she had jumped on the back of her boyfriend motor bike, she had vowed to herself, just to have fun.  
  
Owen watched as Phoebe emptied the dreads of her beer down the back of her throat and threw the plastic cup on the floor.  
  
"Maybe we should get out of here," he told her, with his eyes looking at the plastic cup on the floor. "Get you back home."  
  
Phoebe offered him a small smile, "Oh, I'm not going home tonight, so maybe we should just head upstairs instead."  
  
"Are you sure that's what you want?"  
  
Phoebe grabbed his arm and headed for the stairs, "Yeah, I'm sure." 


	13. 5 June 1997

Part Twelve: 5 June 1997: I Quit  
  
Characters: Piper (24), Phoebe (21), Paige (19)  
  
Piper was walking down a university corridor with her younger sister. She had often to give Phoebe a lift into university, follow by lunch, in a vague attempt that she could hope her change her mind. She could hardly believe that only days after their grandmother's death, that her little sister was just going to run away from things. Run away from her degree, her friends and her family.  
  
Piper knew that family was probably the last thing on Phoebe's mind right now. The Halliwell manor had been filled with anger, resentment and full- scale war, since Prue's fiancée had announced that he had been sleeping with the youngest Halliwell.  
  
Piper wasn't not sure who to believe. On one side she knew that Phoebe would never do anything that would hurt either her or Prue in that fashion. On the other side Prue normally check her facts before jumping down the people's throats and accusing them of something. And things had only intensified since Penny's death, but she did know one thing for sure; that running was not the answer.  
  
Phoebe took a deep breath; she might as well get her older sister's prep talk out of the way. She'd only agreed to let Piper give her a lift in on the condition that they did at least have some fun together before she left on the bus for New York in the morning. She wanted to part with at least one of her sister's on good terms.  
  
"You know I have to do this," Phoebe explained as she turned the corner of the corridor, "I need to get out of San Francisco for a while."  
  
"No, no, you don't have to do this, especially not now," Piper told her, stopping to look Phoebe straight in the eyes. "We all need to stick together at the moment. And I know in time, you and Prue can get over this but running won't help."  
  
"You know as well as me it going to take more that time; she hates me at the moment."  
  
Piper looked at her younger sister in complete disbelief. "Prue doesn't hate you, like you don't hate her. But if you never talk about it, you'll never work through it. Running away won't help."  
  
"I'm not running, I'm going just as much for me as anyone else." Phoebe tried to explain, "I want to find out who I am, live on my own, get some real experience and a chance to find out just who Phoebe Halliwell is."  
  
"And you think you'll find that in New York?" Piper asked as she raised her eyebrows.  
  
Phoebe smiled, "Yeah, it's as good as anywhere else. I mean I've always wanted to visit New York and well London but I can't afford the air ticket for the later. And you know there's always the phone, so it's not like I intend to lose contact with anyone back home but I need to live my life with no one looking over my shoulder for a while."  
  
"We don't look over your shoulder," Piper said trying to justify her past actions, "We just look out for you. I'm your big sister -- that's my job."  
  
"And you'll still be my big sister, when I'm in New York." Phoebe told her with a small smile, "Look your dream is to be a chef and you're going for it. And I'm right behind you, because I know that you're going to be the best damn chef in the world. Now I need you behind me as well, 'cause I maybe going for a bit but I will be back and I'm going to get my degree even if it kills me. So just enjoy the peace, quiet and lack of arguments for a while."  
  
Piper looked into Phoebe stubborn face, "I'm not going to change your mind, am I?"  
  
"Not this time."  
  
"Well I guess we better go and sort this out then," Piper sighed wrapping her arms around her littler sister's shoulder. "So we can enjoy the rest of the day."  
  
Phoebe smiled at her older sister before placing her bag down on the floor and started to search for the two forms she needed. Once she'd empty almost the entire contains of her bag she pulled out two slightly crumpled yellow pieces of paper. But when she looked up at Piper, a teenager who was walking almost running caught her eye.  
  
"Excuse me?" Phoebe called to the girl.  
  
She saw Piper give her a bemused look but she was positive she knew this girl, but just could not place her in her memory. She had such a familiar face, which gave Phoebe the feeling that somehow she had always known the teenager.  
  
"Yeah," replied the teenager as she glanced down at her watch.  
  
"I was just wondering if we've met somewhere before?" Phoebe asked before she could stop herself. "Look I know it sounds stupid, but you just look so familiar. A bit like my older sister actually."  
  
Paige Matthews looked at the two girls with almost as bemused a look written across her face as Piper had. She shrugged at Phoebe before glancing at her watch again, "Don't know. You might have seen me at a party, I tend to go to as I can."  
  
"Yeah, that's probably it." Phoebe sighed, "What's your name?"  
  
"Paige, Paige Matthews." The teenager replied, "Look I'm really sorry but I'm late for class."  
  
"Okay," Phoebe said in a disappointed tone, she did not recognise the name from anywhere. "Nice to meet you."  
  
"Yeah, same back at you. And I guess I'll see you around," Paige told her before she disappeared around the corner.  
  
Both Piper and Phoebe watched the girl's back before she disappeared out of sight. Piper turned to face her younger sister, sending her another questioning look to which Phoebe shrugged at.  
  
"What was all that about?"  
  
Phoebe's eyes flicked back to where the girl had been standing just seconds before. "I just thought I knew her, I've no idea how, but she just had a really familiar look to her especially around her eyes."  
  
"All students' look pretty familiar," Piper explained dismissing Phoebe thought. "Now lets get those forms signed, I'm starving." 


	14. 2 August 1998

Part Thirteen: 2 August 1998: Legal Adult  
  
Characters: Steve, Jeremy, Glen (21), Anna (21), Kirsten (21), Deon (21), Prue (27), Piper (25), Paige (21)  
  
Prue smiled at Steve, she could hardly believe what a good time she was having. The club was great and even better Steve was proving to be a really easy to talk to and very cute. She had not thought about work, Roger or her youngest sister all night, which was the first time that had happened for a while. In all honestly she had expected to hate tonight and it had taken half the evening to persuade her to come.  
  
The oldest Halliwell glanced over at Piper, she'd been right she did need to get out of the house more. Prue had hardly been out since she'd found out that her pathetic excuse of a fiancée had been involved with her bratty younger sister. Every time she thought about that awful night, she felt like exploding. Thank god Phoebe had conformed her guilt and disappeared to the East Coast.  
  
Steve placed his hand over Prue's smiling, "What are you thinking about?"  
  
Prue looked back at his date trying to read his facial expression before she answered, "That I made the right decision in coming tonight."  
  
Piper grinned as she nudged her boyfriend and looked over at her big sister. She had barely seen a smile on Prue's face in the last couple of months. It came as a relief to see that even for a couple of hours that she could loose the bitter streak that had taken over her at times.  
  
"Told you, that you'd enjoy it tonight," Piper explained with a grin on her face as she felt Jeremy's hand on her thigh.  
  
Prue raised her eyebrows at her younger sister, "You know it doesn't suit you."  
  
"What doesn't suit me?" Piper asked innocently, "This dress, because we have both agreed that borrowing from your wardrobe is a good idea."  
  
"Gloating."  
  
"Really? I quite enjoy it when I'm right," Piper told her older sister as she felt Jeremy wrap his other arm around her waist. "But if you don't think so I'll just get back to my date."  
  
While Piper turned back to Jeremy, Prue's eyes were distracted and drifted over Steve shoulder to some celebrations taking place on the dance floor.  
  
Prue smiled as she noticed that a group had crowded around a young woman with dark hair singing a version of happy birthday badly. She let out a small sigh looking at the girl, she doubted that her birthday would have as much to celebrating in a couple of months, before turning back to look at Steve.  
  
Glen opened a bottle of Champagne while Deon handed out the glasses and Paige unscrewed the top of a bottle of water. It seemed a bit of a let down to be having water while all her friends filled themselves with alcohol, but she had worked so hard to get and stay sober, she was not going to ruin that all for one glass of bubbly. Glancing back at her friends, she could not help but laugh as she saw her friend's raise their individual glasses to her.  
  
"To Paige," Kirsten said, talking a sip as she waited for the others to echo Paige's name, "And to legally being allowed to do everything that she has been doing since she was 16!"  
  
"And to all of that," Deon agree with a small grin as he wrapped his arm around Anna. "So how does it feel to finally be an adult?"  
  
"Yeah, we want a full speech," Anna told her friend as she glanced up at Deon. "And this year you're sober so you're not going to get out of it by running to the toilets like on you're 18!"  
  
"Okay, okay," Paige, said with a small grin on her bright red face, the whole of the club seemed to have turned to look at them. "I would like to thank you all for using my birthday for a chance to drink bubbly and get trashed."  
  
As Paige turned to leave and head back to the dance floor, Glen grabbed her arm and shot her and evil grin. "You don't get away that easily Matthews, because as your oldest friend present here to night, I feel that it is my duty to embarrass you. So either you get talking or I will."  
  
"Oh, oh." Kirsten's face lit up, "Let Glen give the speech I want to hear a couple of past experiences, that Ms. Matthew here would be less than willing to tell us."  
  
Paige playful hit Glen side as she thought for a minute. "You see the problem with that would be, in the morning I am probably going to be the only one that can remember tonight."  
  
"Spoil sport," Glen muttered.  
  
"Okay, okay, here's attempt number two. Thanks all for coming, but I not looking after you later and my bathroom is off limits to anyone who is evil. Because I'd much prefer to spend my twenty-first with the cute bar tender over there than looking after any of you," Paige explained as her grin grew and both Kirsten and Anna looked over their shoulders to the bar. "But on a more serious note, you guys have become like a family to me and helped me through a lot. So now that been said, let's forget the emotional stuff and have some fun while I get his number."  
  
"Here, here." Anna grinned as she felt Deon arms wrap tighter around her.  
  
"Glen," Kirsten whispered as she waited for Paige to head for the bar and stood on tiptoes that she was level with Glen's ear. "I'll buy you a drink for each story you can tell me, so we can embarrass her on campus tomorrow."  
  
Glen grinned back, "Well I'd say that's what friends are for, right."  
  
"No kidding." 


	15. 27 October 2000

Part Fourteen: 27 October 2000: A Job That's Never Done  
  
Characters: Darryl, Cole, Bob Cowan, Police Officer, Prue (30), Piper (27), Phoebe (24), Paige (23)  
  
Paige was standing in the corridor of the police station, tapping her foot. This was the part of her job that she hated, being sent to do errands all over the city, standing around for one bit of paper. She glanced around at the familiar walls; she had never been in this building for a good reason. Every time she had been in here when she was younger, it was because she had been dragged in drunk to receive a slap on the wrists. Now when she came in, it was because she was getting the paper work for kids that were normally getting similar punishments to what she had in the not too distant past.  
  
She glanced down at her watch; she'd been out of the office now for a good two hours. Once she had checked her watch, Paige looked up and glanced at the people bustling around the police station.  
  
Paige slightly jumped as she heard her cell phone ring in her back, quickly fumbling to pick it up.  
  
"Hello," she answered the phone in almost a whisper.  
  
"Paige, where are you?" She heard her boss asked her down the phone. "You've been gone nearly all morning. What have you been up too?"  
  
"Running this errands, 'cause that's what assistants do, no matter how long it takes." Paige replied relieving the frustration that was present in her voice. "Look, Mr Cowan, I've got to go. The officer's coming over here now."  
  
Paige slotted her cell phone back into her bag as she looked up at the uniform officer that approached her.  
  
"Ms. Matthews?" The uniformed officer asked.  
  
"Yeah," Paige replied with a smile.  
  
"Sorry about the wait, the files took forever to find."  
  
Paige smiled at the young woman that was about her own age, "Don't worry about it, I know how it feels."  
  
"Let me run you through it all," the police officer offered helpfully as she placed the files down on a nearby table. "It's the blue forms that you are really interested in."  
  
Paige looked between the forms over the police officer's shoulder and the notepad that she had just pulled out of her bag. She offered a small smile as she looked through the file; this girl's file was so similar to that of her own had been at that age.  
  
After slotting the files into her bag, both Paige and the young woman's eyes were distracted by a heated discussion that was taking place only a couple of meters away. Paige's eyes fixed on the argument for a couple of seconds before turning to leave.  
  
"I still don't understand how you can arrest the demon, Darryl."  
  
"Phoebe," Prue hissed glancing over her shoulder. "Keep your voice down."  
  
Darryl looked at the three women and gestured them to a corner. "Can you not use the D word in here."  
  
"Okay, but we still need to vanquish him Darryl otherwise he'll just use his powers to get out of prison and start attacking innocents again," Prue told the Inspector.  
  
Piper shot Darryl a smile filled with sympathy, she could hardly blame Darryl for wanting a normal life. A feeling, a want for that normal life, which she had woken up for the past three years craving. "What do you want us to do?"  
  
"The right thing," Darryl told them as he handed some photocopies to the three Halliwells. "Call me when you've got something."  
  
"Thank you," Piper replied.  
  
"Yeah, we." Phoebe started before being interrupted by her phone ringing.  
  
Phoebe glanced down at her cell phone and a grin spread right across her face. Sending her older sisters an apologetic look she answered the phone.  
  
"Hey you," Phoebe said down the phone.  
  
"Hi," Cole voice returned. "I've been working on this really boring case and couldn't stop thinking about you."  
  
"I know that feeling," Phoebe replied as she looked over at Prue who was now staring back at her with an impatient look while gesturing to her watch.  
  
"So could I take you out tonight?"  
  
"I'd love that," Phoebe replied as she looked at Piper who was also giving her a signal to wrap up the conversation. "But it will have to be quiet late, 'cause I've got a load of work to do on this assignment for school."  
  
Phoebe's smile started to fade as she lied to her boyfriend. She could hardly tell Cole that even though she love to head out with him now, that she couldn't because she was a witch and needed to vanquish a demon right now.  
  
"But after that, I'm all yours." Phoebe finished before looking back at her older sisters with her face still glowing. "Sorry about that, so what's different about this one." 


	16. 20 December 2000

Part Fifteen: 20 December 2000: Christmas Rush Hour  
  
Characters: Cole, Lila, Paige (23)  
  
Cole Turner looked the jewellery store at a local mall. It had been decades since he had last been shopping for jewellery for a woman, since the last had allowed his human half to set boundaries on its own.  
  
He looked along the rows in the glass cabinets at all the different trinkets that could be bought, watches, bracelets, necklaces, rings. No, he had better stay away from the rings; he did not want to give Phoebe the wrong idea.  
  
Things had definitely progressed in the last hundred years, yet one thing had stayed the same. Every woman loved jewellery and a ring still meant more than just a Christmas present.  
  
Cole scanned through the bracelets, what was he doing here anyway. He was a demon, she was a witch, he should be thinking on ways to vanquish her not which would look better again her skin tones, silver or gold. White gold, he decided.  
  
He needed something just a little bit different for Phoebe, something that showed her that she had not just picked up the first thing he saw. Something that showed her he'd thought about her gift.  
  
Something that told Phoebe that her loved her.  
  
He loved the witch. That was the problem; he had started to cross the line.  
  
Unsure of her feeling for her, all he knew was he loved the witch and could not conquer up the right emotion to kill her anymore. And that problem had lead to another on what to get her for Christmas. He needed the perfect gift and fashions had definitely changed since the last time he had to choose a gift for a woman.  
  
He was quickly learning the difference in shopping for a woman instead of a man. There was so much choice and variety.  
  
Cole glanced over at a couple young women that were around Phoebe age on the other side of the store to get some ideas. He had to get some inspiration from somewhere.  
  
Paige was daydreaming while holding a delicate silver bracelet that contained crushed diamonds. If only she could afford things in this store instead of just window-shopping.  
  
She closed her eyes and she carefully placed the bracelet around her left wrist and drifted into her imagination as she felt the soft gold against her skin.  
  
Imagining herself dressed to the nail with a ball gown and the perfect man in a tux. Paige threw herself into a dream that would be perfect for one night, one night of not having to worry about anything, being able to own beautiful things and just have fun.  
  
"Paige," Lila voice broke through her thoughts.  
  
"Yeah," Paige replied handing the bracelet back to the assistant. "What is it?"  
  
"That guy over there has been checking you out," Lila told her gesturing with her eyes to Cole.  
  
Paige glanced over to Cole, "Woah, he's really cute."  
  
"Tell me about it," Lila agreed. "But that enough daydreaming for you today."  
  
"Why?" Paige moaned.  
  
"The time," Lila told her as she showed Paige her watch. "Cowan's going to go spare our lunch break has been over for half an hour."  
  
"Damn it," she muttered looking down at her own watch. "Let's go."  
  
Paige brushed past Cole as she followed Lila out of the door. She turned to look back at him.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"That's okay," Cole muttered in replied as he walked over to where Paige had been standing and looked at the tray that Paige had been examining only minutes earlier.  
  
Cole looked down at the same bracelet that he had noticed Paige looking at earlier. This was perfect; it was so beautiful, delicate and fragile but also intense and powerful, just like Phoebe.  
  
Cole turned back to the doorway where the two girls had just left. There was something so similar about the girl with dark hair, that gave him the feeling that he had seen her before.  
  
Cole shrugged, he probably had seen her before but at over a hundred years old, he hardly remember every person that he had meet.  
  
He looked up at the shop assistant that was approaching him with a sickening smile that was pasted onto her face.  
  
"I'll take this." 


	17. 4 May 2001

Part Sixteen: 4 May 2001: P3  
  
Characters: Leo, Cole, Lila, Billy, Prue (30), Piper (28), Phoebe (25), Paige (23)  
  
Paige was dancing on pure adrenalin as she smiled at her two friends. She loved her job but some days it's was just non-stop chaos and afterwards she had this sudden need to hit a club. And for the last couple of years that club had always been P3.  
  
She always felt a certain contention to P3 since she had found out that Piper Halliwell ran the club. It had almost felt like home for a while now and entering the club gave her this warm kind of glow. The same type of glow that she had been missing for the last six years since that dreadful day that her parents had been killed in the car crash. But P3, always worked as a cure when she was feeling as if she needed a boast and that was definitely what was called for today.  
  
All her deadlines for cases had mounted up to run out at five o'clock today. And she felt like she had been on the phone, at the photocopy machine or typing something on her computer all day.  
  
Paige smiled to herself, at five o'clock and as soon as the last file had been sorted out she had decided she needed a night out. Needless to say it had taken very little time to convince Lila and Billy that they both wanted a night out. And after a quick dinner the three of them had headed down to P3.  
  
Billy waved to get Paige's attention, "It's your turn to go to the bar."  
  
"Ah, can't one of you go," Paige pleaded to her friends. "I've been running errands all day."  
  
Lila laughed, "And we haven't. Next time you try that line, you should use it on people who don't have the same job as you."  
  
"Okay, okay," Paige muttered as she turned, before looking back at her two friends, "I'll be back in a minute."  
  
Paige made her way to the bar and enjoyed one of her favourite hobbies of people watching while she waited to be served. She amused herself while trying to think what people could actually be saying while watching in what was a muted tone because of the loud music.  
  
Paige was jolted out of watching a young couple as she saw a young women with dark hair approach her.  
  
"What can I get you?" Piper asked hardly looking at the young woman she was facing as she glanced over her shoulder to Leo and sent him a smile.  
  
"I'll have a mineral water, a vodka and coke and Budweiser."  
  
Paige allowed her eyes to drift again before paying for the drinks and returning to her friends.  
  
Piper turned away and walked back to her sisters, Leo and Cole. She reached over the bar to kiss Leo, while Prue stared back up the bar.  
  
Prue flicked her eyes between the girl that had just headed back into the crowds on the dance floor and the two couple that were sat next to her. Prue sighed looking at her younger sisters and their partners, she was going to have to find someone soon because she was sick of playing fifth wheel.  
  
"What's the matter?" Piper asked as she noticed her older sister's distracted gaze.  
  
"Nothing really," Prue said as much to herself as Piper. "It's just that girl, she looked really familiar like I've seen her somewhere before."  
  
"She was probably an innocent we saved at some point," Phoebe replied, not taking her eyes off Cole. "I mean we've saved millions in the last three years."  
  
Prue stared at Cole for a second before looking back at both of her sisters, she just could not trust the demon, no matter how many times Phoebe told her that he was good and she loved him.  
  
"Yeah, I guess you're probably right."  
  
"Don't worry about it, Prue," Piper suggested as she followed Prue gaze to Cole herself.  
  
Phoebe noticed the looks her two older sisters were sending at her boyfriend.  
  
"If looks could kill," she muttered to herself before glaring back at them and taking Cole hand. "We're going to work on that power striping potion and if you that worried Prue, just go up at ask her."  
  
Piper's eyes followed Phoebe and Cole as they left the club before glancing back to Prue whose eyes had drifted back to the dance floor.  
  
"You've just got to trust her when she saws that he's good now and he's helped vanquish the last dozen demons."  
  
"I trust her," Prue explained. "Just not him."  
  
Piper sighed and looked at Leo. Her two sister were never going to agree on the 'Cole' issue.  
  
"When the power striping potion has been completed you will have nothing to worry about," Leo explained to her.  
  
"Okay, okay, I get the picture," Prue sighed to herself. "Now back to the girl."  
  
"You're obsessing," Piper told her with a grin. "I say unless a demon suddenly throws a fireball at her, forget it. We've got other things to deal with."  
  
Fin  
  
And as we all know, the three girls meet at Prue's funeral on the 4 October 2001, and as we say the rest is history. 


End file.
